The Jungle - The Lie of the American DreamIn The Jungle, Sinclair understands his subjects deeply and can make the plots real for the reader. Even in a small part of the book, Sinclair makes me feel, imagine, and contemplate his words. Chapters 18-23 were chapters that Sinclair took time and effort to write and bring to perfection. From my point of view, I think he achieved this feat and made these chapters a realistic event. The main theme of these 6 chapters is “The lie of the American dream”. Jurgis thought that coming here to the United States would make everything easy for him, but everything turned against his will. In chapter 18, he leaves prison, free, to find someone else in his home. He realized that his family had lost their home because of lack of money and because he was not there when they needed him most. He later found them and found his wife giving birth with complications and feeling death around him. This is a very shocking and yet horrible idea. With only twenty-five dollars, Madame Haupt helped Ona give birth, but was unable to give them life. With those twenty-five dollars, Ona lost her life and left Jurgis alone forever. The same day, little Kotrina won three dollars, Jurgis took them and got drunk. This American lie hit him hard, the least he could do was get drunk and forget about life for a while. However, life was still ahead of him. He returned to fertilizer production, but did not find work there. He owed so much money that the least he could do was get a job. He tried many places until his friend found him a job in a big factory. There he worked and worked, but he lost it because the factories closed and there was no more work until further notice. Jurgis probably thought "America is lying to me again" and needs to deal with it. Thus, Jurgis did not sit idly by; he left to look for work. He begged, he slept on the streets, he tried everything, but finally he found another job in a factory and worked there. It seemed like life was getting easier, but it was getting worse. One day Jurgis came home and learned that his son, his little boy Antanas, was dead. It was a nightmare for Jurgis.